Happening Today

Edmonton Headlines: Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Our court system failed

Written by Jeff Samsonow

I don’t tend to include a lot of crime stories in the Headlines. Most of the time they are without much context and I don’t like the whole “if it bleeds, it leads” strategy of too many newsrooms. So, I hadn’t planned on starting today with a story that is from the crime side of things… but I think it’s too important and too upsetting to try and mention it somewhere down there after we talk about flood plans and school fees (which we will get to).

*Reader note: Details of the stories linked to include descriptions of violence and sexual assault*

CBC Edmonton’s Janice Johnston has a story about a woman shackled and held in the Remand Centre for days to ensure her appearance in court. But she was the victim in the case. The crown attorney and judge didn’t trust her to show up to court to testify in the preliminary hearing of the man accused – and later convicted – of committing terrifying violence upon her. She even had to ride from the Remand Centre to the Edmonton Law Courts IN THE SAME VAN AS HER ATTACKER.

A different judge presiding over the trial didn’t agree with how the woman was treated. After convicting the accused in the case, the crown applied to have the woman’s attacker deemed a dangerous offender and put away for an indefinite amount of time. This is important to consider in balance to what happened to the woman in this case. (She can’t be named due to a publication ban.)

Sadly, the woman would never see her vindication. She was killed in an unrelated crime before the trial.

There will be an independent investigation into the treatment of this woman, as well as new rules the Justice Minister is implementing, some of them immediately. Certainly, it’s expected we’ll see some people dragged out into the light, now two years later, to answer for their actions. We must hear why a woman would be treated this way. We must find ways to ensure all judges, crown attorneys and others in our criminal and justice system understand the systemic pain they can inflict – not to mention the physical and mental pain – when they act out of white supremacy and classism. This follows on similar calls to update our justice system when it comes to sexual assault.

In a city, and province, that must atone for its past aggressions and cultural genocide of Indigenous peoples it is beyond the least we can do to acknowledge how reconciliation is needed in our court system, perhaps faster than it is in the wider community. And the provincial government must implement new standards for dealing with Indigenous people who appear before them and ensure everyone from arresting officers to appeal court justices puts their privilege in check.

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We don’t like to just get angry around here, we always try to point toward something to follow up an outrage with some action. (But definitely allow yourself to feel your anger and other feelings.) Sharing the story would be one thing we can do, to make sure it doesn’t go unheard any longer. This would be especially important if you think it would cross the social media path of anyone in law enforcement, the legal system or government.

Around the city

The City is releasing details on its big flood plans. The prevention strategy will cost billions of dollars and likely take decades to implement. The key to this is to update and upgrade flood protection in Edmonton’s core and mature neighbourhoods. Newer neighbourhoods have better infrastructure to handle big flashes of rain with things like storm water ponds. The City is also talking about ways to better protect underpasses from flash flooding, which is not directly related to the longer-term planning but might get lumped in as part of the financing.

The City wants to work with owners of office towers and big buildings – those larger than 20,000 square feet – to help them identify ways to go green and cut greenhouse gas emissions. Our big buildings eat up a lot of power.